Tricks for lighting darker skin?

Comments

• nemesis10 Posts: 3,774

  May 21

  Oh, I can think of scores of solutions for you depending on your workflow and how you want the final image to look!  Here are a few ideas:

  the first obvious ones are lights such as https://www.daz3d.com/sy-invisilights-iray where you place an invisible emissive light subtle level of brightness to bring out the features or a brighter light which will give the eyes a little glint or https://www.daz3d.com/headlights-for-genesis-9 which has a cloud of little lights which you can rotate to gently brighten the face.

  

  The next thing you can do is post work and selectively brighten the face. The method I would suggest is using what is called a beauty canvas to do tone mapping.  I use a specialized bit of software called Luminar Neo and do someting like this. https://youtu.be/ZtiBWSo0XlQ?si=I5HoBFDiTnUvLw2z  I have over 30 years of Photoshop experience so I might dodge and burn to achieve  the effect in a pinch.  

  I will also mention Rim lights.... there are so many different ways to achieve the effect.  
• Elor Posts: 3,162

  May 21 edited May 21

  If you didn't already thought about them, you can search for photographers' tutorials on any subject related to lighting someone or something: they won't obviously show you how to do it in Daz Studio, but it's usually not too hard to mimick what they are doing using either spotlights or primitives in Daz Studio.

  To show an example, in the last render I posted in my gallery ('Rosa Maria 8.1, at the bar'), the way I initially placed lights around the scene lead to harsh shadows on Rosa Maria's face, due to her glasses:

  

  I didn't know how to fix the problem myself so I ended watching a couple of videos by photographers explaining how they dealt with people wearing glasses. Then I built the lights setup they spoke about myself and ended with, what I think is a better result overall:

  

  On top of placing lights around the scene, you can also play with the tonemappers options, they can change the way a scene looks a lot:

  

  

  

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  Post edited by Elor on May 21
• SilverGirl Posts: 2,854

  May 21

  nemesis10 said:

  Oh, I can think of scores of solutions for you depending on your workflow and how you want the final image to look!  Here are a few ideas:

  the first obvious ones are lights such as https://www.daz3d.com/sy-invisilights-iray where you place an invisible emissive light subtle level of brightness to bring out the features or a brighter light which will give the eyes a little glint or https://www.daz3d.com/headlights-for-genesis-9 which has a cloud of little lights which you can rotate to gently brighten the face.

  

  The next thing you can do is post work and selectively brighten the face. The method I would suggest is using what is called a beauty canvas to do tone mapping.  I use a specialized bit of software called Luminar Neo and do someting like this. https://youtu.be/ZtiBWSo0XlQ?si=I5HoBFDiTnUvLw2z  I have over 30 years of Photoshop experience so I might dodge and burn to achieve  the effect in a pinch.  

  I will also mention Rim lights.... there are so many different ways to achieve the effect.  

  SY ghost lights - have it and love it! It (and a couple other similar products) have really upped my game, and I use them over most of the light sources in my scenes. Unfortunately, a lot of times those light sources don't seem to be in a useful spot. (grr.)

  Rim lights - I have a set, and have done some limited cool backlighting with them, but perhaps I need to greater research their possibilities? Thank you, I will look into that

  Headlights - I don't think that would work for my general stuff, but I do have a couple specialized ideas those would work great with -- so thank you, wishlisting for those!

  Post work - I would love to have that sort of competence. I can do some very, very basic stuff in GIMP, but I admit to a sort of deer-in-the-headlights look when it comes to those programs. I'll take a look at the link you posted, but I'm still hoping I can manage something in-scene without having to learn an entirely new program.

  Thank you!
• SilverGirl Posts: 2,854

  May 21

  Elor said:

  If you didn't already thought about them, you can search for photographers' tutorials on any subject related to lighting someone or something: they won't obviously show you how to do it in Daz Studio, but it's usually not too hard to mimick what they are doing using either spotlights or primitives in Daz Studio.

  To show an example, in the last render I posted in my gallery ('Rosa Maria 8.1, at the bar'), the way I initially placed lights around the scene lead to harsh shadows on Rosa Maria's face, due to her glasses:

  

  I didn't know how to fix the problem myself so I ended watching a couple of videos by photographers explaining how they dealt with people wearing glasses. Then I built the lights setup they spoke about myself and ended with, what I think is a better result overall:

  

  On top of placing lights around the scene, you can also play with the tonemappers options, they can change the way a scene looks a lot:

  

  Oh wow, I hadn't even thought of researching photography tricks, but that makes sense. Going to have to try that (and nice job on the glasses!)

  I'll also give that video a watch. I keep meaning to get through all of those masterclass videos, and then not doing it and forgetting they exist. (Or not knowing which one I need to hit to deal with my issue...) 

  I have a couple more directions to try now. Thank you.
• Linwelly Posts: 6,055

  May 21 edited May 21

  in many scenes I end up adding a simple emissive plane in a position left or right off the camera you will use with your character and dial the emissive to a light setting that befits the scene but gives off enough fill light so dark skinned characters are well seen

  for portrait styles you will give a dark skinned character a strong rim light, a main light and a fill light.

  Looking up photographers tipps is really helpful, I did that as well and also experiment with one of the portrait light sets you can buy so see which light has which effect on your character.

  Also I recommend joining the New Users Challenge: February is about Light and July will be Portraits

  1st: Stage light setting with Rim (blue), Main and fill light

  

  2nd

  environmental light with an emissive plane for the lighting of the character

  

  

  

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  Post edited by Linwelly on May 21
• Timbales Posts: 2,423

  May 21

  You can also look at adjusting the ISO and F Stop of your rendering camera.
• xyer0 Posts: 6,329

  May 21

  Director's Lights by Aeon Soul. Mesh light rig with directional guides, several presets, and can be parented to whatever camera you choose. Solves visibility problems. Each mesh can be repositioned, resized, and emission-adjusted independently. Aeon Soul already did the hard part for you.
• Hylas Posts: 5,223

  May 22

  I usually just add some extra point lights that hover around the character.